Helmet cam could be coming to NFL games

Posted by Mike Florio on June 23, 2014, 1:53 PM EDT

As the NFL moves toward using drones to enhance the images generated by football games, an old-school technology (relatively speaking) could be taking fans into the huddle — and elsewhere on the gridiron.

Nearly a quarter century after the World League of American Football used a camera tucked into the padding of a helmet to display in-game images, the NFL could eventually be using the SchuttVision system, with a camera between the facemask screws at the hairline of the helmet, during games.

“This is something that networks want in their broadcasts,” product inventor JR Liverman told Mark Kaboly of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “I don’t have a crystal ball in knowing when that will happen. I absolutely believe that this will be integrated into the broadcasts on all levels of football over the next years.”

It seems to be only a matter of time before the cameras blanketing the field will be complemented by cameras in the field, with that footage eventually becoming the source of evidence to overturn, or to uphold, key calls.

honestly always felt it was a bit too “XFL”. I have seen it in the football video games since unnecessary roughness in 1994. and I have never liked it.

is it so bad to want to keep things how they are? maybe add that spring development league where they can implement some of this stuff and see if it changes the feel of the broadcast. use that as the testing ground.

Helmet Cam is lame, always will be. What would truly be the ultimate view is “eyeball cam”. Helmets can’t track where the player is looking or seeing, but an eyeball cam would show exactly what the player is looking at, or looking to avoid.

The best way the NFL could handle this is to deny letting the broadcasts use this. The NFL should put cameras in all the skill position players and put the video feed up live on the NFL website so the fans can logon and watch whatever player they choose and/or switch between players at will.

“looking in on what colin kaepernick is see’ing now, coming up to the line, hikes the ball, plenty of time, see’s crabtree….wait, he starts to scramble and gets tackled for a 2 yard gain on 3rd and 9!”

“i dont know what happen troy, looking through his cam you could clearly see that johnson and boldin were wide open but he only went through his first read and scrambled”

“This is something that networks want in their broadcasts,” product inventor JR Liverman told Mark Kaboly of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “I don’t have a crystal ball in knowing when that will happen. I absolutely believe that this will be integrated into the broadcasts on all levels of football over the next years.”

How about making a safer helmet??? Good thing player safety always come first w/ Goodell.

Wow,…just got off the phone with God. He said George Halas and Vince Lombardi were hanging 10 on cloud 9 giving the middle finger salute to Goodell and the nerds behind the goofy robot ‘Jethro’ from Fox Sports. We salute you Dork nation!

I Loved that World Football League helmet cam. Sometimes you can see a QB just getting BLASTED with crazy head shots. I really liked seeing what the QB saw as far as watching pass routes develop. I hope someday someone is smart enough to go split screen. That would kick (|) !

This could be great for tough calls, potentially interesting for replays of certain moves and all out great fun to see a flagrant face-masking from either or both angles. Even that ‘eye-ball’ view isn’t impossible, if they can swivel a go-pro based on eye tracking of that player it’d tell anyone watching where he is or isn’t looking. Obviously not everyone would want that or resist the temptation to abuse it.